Craigslist's stand over adult services

The online marketplace Craigslist surprised everyone when it pulled the plug on its "adult services" listings a few days ago.

Last year the San Francisco-based company removed its "erotic services" section and replaced it with a fee-based adult category in response to pressure from 40 state attorneys general.

Now it has removed all of its adult content in an effort to pacify its critics.

It also adopted a policy of manually screening every advert, and in just over a year rejected some 700,000 for failing to meet its standards.

The firm's chief executive Jim Buckmaster has never swayed from the company's reasons for hosting these adverts.

In a May blog post, Mr Buckmaster wrote:

"[W]e are convinced Craigslist is a vital part of the solution to this age old scourge. We've been told as much by experts on the front lines of this fight, many of whom we have met with in person, and many of whom have shared very helpful suggestions that we have incorporated in our approach.
 
"Even politicians looking to make their careers at the expense of Craigslist's good name grudgingly admit (when pressed) that we have made huge strides."

Danah Boyd, a researcher at Microsoft and also a victim of abuse wrote in the Huffington Post that the belief that Craigslist is operating like a digital pimp and should be prosecuted is "faulty logic".

"The problem with this logic is that it fails to account for three important differences: 1) most ISPs have a fundamental business - if not moral - interest in helping protect people; 2) the visibility of illicit activities online makes it much easier to get at, and help, those who are being victimized; and 3) a one-stop-shop is more helpful for law enforcement than for criminals. In short, Craigslist is not a pimp, but a public perch from which law enforcement can watch without being seen."

Craigslist has long maintained that its standards exceeded those set by the rest of the industry, including the back pages of newspapers where "erotic" adverts are commonplace and even on eBay which has endured some unwanted attention for the listings on its Spanish subsidiary LOQUO.

Now the company's decision to pull the ads here in the US, and replace the section with the word "censored" has everyone double-guessing the reasons behind the move.

In truth no-one really knows because Craigslist is a company that does not rush to the nearest TV studio to press its case. Even now, given the months of controversy and intense criticism, the executives at Craigslist have kept their own counsel.

But as they stay mum, everyone else is filling the vacuum - from supporters of the change to detractors and from those that applauded Craigslist's stand in the first place to those that derided it.

Depending on what side of the fence you stand in this debate, the basic consensus is that the company took this action as a protest over first amendment rights, it had had enough of the criticism and haranguing, it wavered under pressure from attorneys general and fear of expensive lawsuits and/or it wanted to protect its bottom line.

According to the Advanced Interactive Media Group, Craigslist's "adult services" section accounts for 30% of the site's estimated $122m 2010 revenue.

The Wall Street Journal maintained that lawsuits were not the issue here. Geoffrey A Fowler wrote:

"In a number of legal challenges, Craigslist and other sites including Yelp have shielded themselves against lawsuits involving content by citing the Communications Decency Act. That federal law has been interpreted to provide sites with blanket immunity for content created by users."

One young woman who had in the past sold her body for sex using the then "erotic services" section of the site has lambasted the company's founder Craig Newmark for its move. Melissa Petro in the Huffington Post wrote:

"I hope to never again make the choice to trade sex for cash even as I risk my current job and social standing to speak out for an individuals' right to do so. The simple fact is that people do have sex for money - many different kinds of people for many different reasons, people as varied as those looking to buy concert tickets, sell a collectible or adopt a pet - and these people will continue to.
 
"Whether the choice to do so is being dignified and protected with its own forum or whether what was once that safe space remains appropriately labelled 'censored', that choice, without a court order one way or another, remains up to Newmark."

Ryan Radia of the Technology Liberation Front said the repercussions are clear:

"Criminals will simply migrate to even shadier websites, further hindering efforts by law enforcement to put child sex traffickers behind bars.
 
"It's 2010, and nearly 5 billion devices worldwide are now connected to the internet - a freely accessible, unfiltered, unauthenticated worldwide network. As long as such a network exists, it's all but inevitable that it will have a seedy underbelly. Law enforcement officials should investigate sex crimes against children committed using the internet and aggressively prosecute suspected child sex traffickers. Trying to intimidate interactive websites like Craigslist, however, is the wrong approach."

Craigslist has in the past asserted that by not having a special area for these adverts to be posted means they will migrate to other parts of the site. That is exactly what seems to be happening.

A cursory glance in the casual encounters section has adverts from a people asking "let's have fun in your van" to "looking for erotic fun and adventure".

Whatever the real reasons for the censorship decision, others are now looking to write the next chapter of this tale.

The Rebecca Project and the Polaris Project, two organisations that have campaigned against sex trafficking of women and children, wants Craigslist to go further and "censor" adverts on its international sites.

"While this is a first good step in the US, there are still more than 250 other Craigslist 'erotic' pages around the world where children and young women are still being sold for sex through Craiglist," said the groups.

They along with other anti-sex trafficking bodies will hold a press conference later today on the issue.

So do you think Craigslist was right to censor the adult services section or do you think it should be re-instated?

A poll on the news blog Mashable showed a majority in favour of not censoring the adverts.

Even the comedian Conan O'Brien has weighed in on the matter and declared on his Twitter feed that "Craigslist has shut down their adult services section. Looks like the 'used futon for sale' ads are about to get a lot more interesting."

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